Speaker
Dr
Michael Backes
Description
The variability of the very high energy (VHE) emission from blazars seems to be connected with the feeding and propagation of relativistic jets and with their origin in supermassive black hole binaries. The key to understanding their properties is measuring well-sampled gamma-ray lightcurves, revealing the typical source behavior unbiased by prior knowledge from other wavebands.
Using ground-based gamma-ray observatories with exposures limited by dark-time, a global network of several telescopes is needed to carry out full-time measurements. Obviously, such observations are time-consuming and, therefore, cannot be carried out with the present state of the art instruments.
The FACT telescope on the Canary Island of La Palma is dedicated to monitoring observations. It has been set up, employing a cost-efficient and robotic design. A future aim is the construction of a distributed network of small telescopes. The physical motivation of VHE long-term monitoring will be outlined in detail and the perspective for a network for 24/7 VHE gamma-ray observations will be presented.
